It was one of those ordinary summer days you remember for the rest of your life. The heat, Youth Park in Kharkiv. The twins, Karyna and Maryna happily greet their friends. Suddenly they hear a piercing whistle. A sound impossible to mistake for anything else, a sound that cuts the space and time into “before” and “after.” A missile! And not just one… A wave of smoke, dust, a huge tree branch flying straight toward the girls. And a crowd rushing toward the subway. They were very lucky back then. 

Since the start of the invasion, Kharkiv has been a city whose heart beats halfway underground. The Ryzhkov family’s life has also gradually shifted there. School classes at the “metro school”, circus studio sessions, all of that in the basement. And even the paintings Karyna creates are exhibited in the metro.

Art has become their personal protest against the war. After returning to Kharkiv from a brief evacuation, the girls found their place at the circus studio, which has now become their second family. Maryna dreams of pursuing a professional career in the circus and becoming a choreographer. She already works as a coach for young children and creates her own acts, one of which won the grand prix abroad. Karyna, meanwhile, wants to open her own art studio in Kharkiv.

The Ryzhkov family sees this interview as a time capsule. For future generations, for their grandchildren who will one day ask: “What was it like?  Living in a city that was shelled every day?”. They want future generations to know: Despite everything, the city endured!  It stood its ground because its people held it together.